Accused Roseville man may benefit from appeals court ruling

A Roseville man facing drug charges and the potential loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in property and cash could have the charges dismissed or reduced due to appeals court rulings.

The state Court of Appeals overturned a Macomb County judge and says that a Roseville police officer presented misleading information for a search warrant of William McCleese’s house in 2010.

In addition, the court also overruled Judge Diane Druzinski of Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens, saying she should have allowed McCleese to use the state Medical Marijuana Act as an “affirmative defense.”

The rulings apply to McCleese’s arrest following the June 2010 search of his Secretariat Street home that netted 55 marijuana plants growing under special lights in his basement. McCleese, 57, showed a patient card and his wife, Sharon, showed a caregiver card through the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

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Police and prosecutors said the number of plants exceeded the 12-per-patient allowance under the MMA. The couple was charged with manufacture of between 5 and 45 kilograms of marijuana, punishable by up to seven years in prison, and maintaining a drug house, a two-year misdemeanor. Sharon McCleese’s charges were later dismissed.

The COA in the ruling released Friday says the search was performed on a faulty warrant because the affidavit consisted of “conclusory” statements and “self-serving assertions” based on the use of “rumors or reputations” that drug activity was occurring at the house. The 39th District Court magistrate should have disregarded the claims and denied the warrant, the court says.

“The most critical omission from the affidavit underlying the search warrant was any timely evidence — either by confidential informant, a controlled buy, or otherwise — that narcotics or the proceeds of narcotics were actually present in the defendant’s home,” the panel of three jurists says.

The court notes that Detective Mitchell Berlin improperly makes references to McCleese’s prior “narcotic related offenses” convictions, one in 1987, because they are “stale” and irrelevant.

The court calls “a bald accusation” the claim that $115,000 in McCleese’s Comerica Bank accounts was garnered or “at the very least co-mingled with proceeds … from narcotic trafficking activities.”

The money was in retirement accounts, the court says.

Regarding the medical marijuana defense, Druzinski agreed with Macomb prosecutors and forbade his use of the MMA as a defense because he violated requirements by not keeping the marijuana in a closed, locked facility and having too many plants. Nine of the marijuana plants were found in an open area of the basement while the remaining 46 were in a room, according to court records.

But the appeals court says that the state Supreme Court’s decision in People v. King in May 2012 means that McCleese can seek dismissal based on the claim he is properly growing the marijuana under the MMA even if he does not meet all the requirements for storage and number of plants.

The June 2010 search warrant was conducted two weeks after McCleese was sentenced to two years probation in circuit court after pleading guilty to inducing a minor and a marijuana charge related to a case began in 2006.